


Kuiper's Berceuse

by ArchbowMistress, ThePastReliesOnMemories



Category: No Straight Roads (Video Game)
Genre: Also im not sure when this is set, Character Study, Drifting, Exploration, Gen, Lucid Dreaming, Minor Info Dump but thats cuz its DJSS, Outer Space, Self-Acceptance, probably post-canon but any works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28570182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArchbowMistress/pseuds/ArchbowMistress, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePastReliesOnMemories/pseuds/ThePastReliesOnMemories
Summary: When I created my most beloved melody, I was thinking of Pluto.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	Kuiper's Berceuse

**Author's Note:**

> Yo, before you read this, check this 30-second music/video out first cuz it adds SO much atmosphere to the whole thing. I was literally putting this on loop while writing it. Totally optional, but trust me, its really sweet. 
> 
> https://twitter.com/mochawulf/status/1323717303167406080
> 
> Also, thanks to Pasta again for helping me write this whole darn thing. All the funnier and detailed portions were probably mine, but they improved it immensely and had their own super welcome additions, I love it.
> 
> One more thing: There are two, very specific references that I decided I wanted to add for some reason, so the answers are at the bottom notes, but kudos to you if you know where they came from before you read the notes.
> 
> With that said, I hope you enjoy my 2nd attempt at a story~!

Drifting.

I’m drifting again.

I didn’t need to open my (non-existent) eyes to know where I am, but I opened them anyway. only to catch a glimpse of what I saw in passing. It took awhile for my night vision to finally adjust, but when it finally did, I was not, and will probably never be, prepared to truly take in what I was seeing. 

The stars… there are so many, probably billions or even trillions of them… and they are oh so beautiful. They don’t twinkle, the earth’s atmosphere is at fault for that phenomenon, but here, away from any blanket of gas, they shine so much brighter than any star I see on earth. My slow but constant spinning allowed me to view the universe as a whole, each perspective becoming something new yet familiar. I could witness the constellations as I remembered their respective mythos, from the popular Orion to the questionable origins of Prius.

…Where is Earth, anyway? And is that Saturn I see? Wait... I can see Saturn’s poles! The hexagon poles are such marvelous exceptions to the roundness of the planet and its rings. They are such a sight to behold up close, unlike those of photographs or through the lenses of a telescope. Although I have heard of accounts of a person falling into the storm- ah… never mind.

By some miracle, I continued drifting, all the while avoiding collisions into other heavenly bodies or even their atmospheres. Although, I don’t recall passing Uranus and Neptune. Even with the relatively slow pace, I should have been able to reach the outer planets in this amount of ti-

...oh.

I could feel myself slack in stunned disbelief as the non-planet entered my view. Its brown-complexion and white heart (that is probably a product of pareidolia, yes, definitely) showed itself in full detail... and despite the surrealness of being here in the first place, I scoffed. 

Why Pluto? 

Why  _ this  _ mess of a title change? 

It has such a  _ meager  _ existence that its discovery was a complete  _ accident!  _ It didn’t need to be thought of as something significant. It's a speck, a literal speck on the sky that a brilliant mind somehow accidentally discovered by making the wrong equations. 

Of all the directions, why did I drift  _ here _ ?

As I was fuming, I finally took another glance at the brown object and noticed that it was much smaller than it I had imagined it to be. That cannot be right… it was small, but not the size of a  _ basketball _ ! And yet, it was slowly getting closer and closer, until-

It bumped into my chest.

My rage quelled a bit. _ I… didn’t expect that. _ Perplexed, I brought both my hands to the tiny sphere, cupping it like it was a delicate trophy... were those the right words...? The ex-planet floated just before my palms, baring to me all the little things it beheld which I never would have noticed from the pictures I dared to view.

I observed its bronze shade, akin to old-timey television shows. I took note of its cream colored poles, reminding me of vanilla-flavored ice pops, and finally, I acknowledged that white heart on the front. A part of my mind gleefully supplies that it was a massive land of ice. I brushed my finger onto the redder portions of the sphere and, oh my… my finger was dusted with the pigment.

The deep crimson, almost akin to a shade of copper oxide of the first variant - it stained the tip of the glove covering my middle finger, changing the pristine white into another colour entirely.

I knew what it was at the first glance.

“Red snow,” I whispered to no-one in particular. The chemical composition of the snow causes its unique color, although I refrained from trying to smell it due to it being rich in methane. 

Despite the gas being fairly non-toxic, I was not up to being asphyxiated by copious amounts of methane at the moment, as attractive the shade of red was on my finger.

All these small things, from the colours adorning its surface, down to the red snow... was Pluto ever this interesting before? It must have been from that one expedition a few years ago. They collected soil samples, atmospheric data... and above all, a  _ very  _ detailed photo of the heavenly body itself, with all its true colors and features. Who knew that this demoted planet had so many secrets to tell?

Well… I did. 

A very long time ago. Back when all I had was a mediocre music software based on a popular game I used to play. 

I would stare into the sky and imagine: What does it  _ feel  _ like to be  _ Pluto _ ? 

A planet that was found ahead of its time... yet, even I knew it was more than its name. Thus, I made a little melody, one that is so minute and  _ desperate  _ to make itself known that it became... charming. A tune that, with its chime, promised secrets and knowledge, only if you gave it a chance to be heard and understood.

I held my old muse closer as the tune of the music box filled the silence of space.

Like a lullaby, drifting away...

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_ Beep! Beep! Beep! _

My alarm was blaring as I woke up from my bed. Rubbing my maybe-existent eyes (as if anyone would ever know) awake, I tilted my head to look at the clock. 

5:00 pm. The event starts at 8:00 pm, I have enough time.

I sat up and did my nightly routine before a concert. Making coffee, showering, looking away in disgust at the pants I used to wear, eating dinner alongside my coffee... oh, and feeding the cat that would visit my front door for food. The usual things, like all other times.

During the flurry of activities, the dream persists. The  _ tune _ persists. I knew I was lying to myself when I intentionally placed that memory into my most beloved track. It was like a distant echo, constantly reminding me of the past and now letting itself be known in my future plans.

For once in a long time, I didn’t hesitate to hum along.

**Author's Note:**

> Aforementioned References:
> 
> End of the 4th Paragraph: A reference to Overly Sarcastic Productions with Red going on a minor rant with Prius being fake.
> 
> End of the 5th Paragraph: A reference to the game Observation, where the characters are in the orbit of Saturn. (technically a spoiler but its nothing game changing)


End file.
